farmers

Quote

Quote from J H Grobler - KwaZulu-Natal Nature Conservation Service.
"Caracals are seldom killed using humane coyote getters, but can be caught in gin taps (slagysters), cage traps which they walk into, or by using a pack of hounds. Traps may be set at a kill, particularly one that has not been disturbed, or they can be carefully located beside routes used by caracal. Gin traps should not be set under holes in fences or in footpaths, as non-target animals will be caught. Caracal urine or faeces can be used as lures at gin traps, and various methods are used to attract Caracals into cage traps, including smelly baits, rotting fish, urine and faeces from other Caracals, a piece of skin or even a bunch of chicken feathers on a string. Again, your local conservation officer will provide guidance where necessary on lures and trapping. "

Chris mercer

"Bev and I are qualified to discuss problem animal control because after our retirement, we spent eleven years livestock farming in the western Transvaal. We won prizes for our sheep at various shows around the country. We know how easy it is to adjust farming tactics in order to minimize losses by predators."
"I started to research the subject, and this is what I found out. Near Bloemhof about 200 kms west of Johannesburg lies a small reserve, the SA Lombard Nature Reserve, a 3,800 hectare stretch of open grassland. Here is where captured predators, including Cheetah, were fed on meat laced with poisons, while government officials callously recorded the time taken by the animals to die. This facility has fallen into disuse now owing to diversion of funds into more useful activities. The dreadful experiments conducted over the years at SA Lombard show what happens when poisons are ingested. I discovered that the treatment of problem animals by farmers involves the lifting of all controls on inhumane methods of hunting. Gin-traps, snares, poison, you name it and it is legitimate in South Africa. One favourite device for getting animals out of burrows involves the use of barbed wire. A length of barbed wire is fed into the hole and then twisted until the barbs catch in the coat of the trapped animal. Twisting continues until the animal's coat has been rolled around the barbs. Once impaled in this manner, the grotesquely disfigured animal - whether a target animal or a family of bat-eared foxes - is hauled out of the burrow, into the jaws of the waiting dogs."
"Behind the euphemism of 'problem animal control' lies barbaric cruelty on a scale that the South African public cannot even imagine. Of course, national government has made South Africa a signatory to the Convention on Biodiversity, which makes compulsory extermination of whole species unlawful. Look at the absurdity of the situation. Here is the international Convention, which has been adopted in SA, doing its best to save the animals, while some provinces (where the animals live) are doing their best to exterminate them. By the simple expedient of refusing to put ALL species listed in CITES into the threatened or endangered list (on the pretence that 'criteria are different'), allowing hunters to get a three year blanket permit and refusing to ban the possession, sale or use of gin traps (which are totally banned in more than 90 countries worldwide including all EU states) our conservation officials are promoting the wholly unnecessary war on our wildlife by unscientific livestock farmers. Even if there were a will to protect the animals, the provinces do not have the capacity to do so. So the vicious war on so-called problem animals goes on remorselessly under the new banner of 'damage causing animals.' The SA public needs to be exposed to this issue, and for a proper public participation process to be implemented."